April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. will stay
focused on developing new cancer medicines that use the body’s
own immune system to fight the disease, the company’s new head
of research and development said today.

The drugmaker won’t change directions under Francis Cuss,
58, who was named chief scientific officer of the New York-based
drug company yesterday. Cuss takes over from Elliott Sigal, 61,
who will retire June 30.

“This is about continuity, and obviously the continuity of
success,” Chief Executive Officer Lamberto Andreotti said on a
conference call today. Cuss joined Bristol-Myers in 2003 as the
head of the company’s drug discovery efforts.

Sigal helped implement Bristol-Myers’ “string of pearls”
strategy, a plan of acquisitions and licensing deals for
compounds to replace revenue lost from Plavix, the anti-stroke
medication that was until this year the company’s best-selling
product. There is no plan to shift what the company looks for in
deals now that Cuss will head R&D, Andreotti said.

“Nothing has changed, in terms of our business development
strategies,” Andreotti said.

Bristol-Myers shares gained less than 1 percent to $40.73
at the close in New York. The company’s stock has increased 21
percent in the past 12 months.

No Preference

For new drugs, Bristol-Myers is looking at areas where
there aren’t existing therapies, Cuss said, and it doesn’t have
a preference between diseases with small groups of patients that
can command high prices, and those with larger populations.

“I go where the medical need is,” Cuss said on the call.

The company’s top prospect is nivolumab, an immuno-oncology
drug. The medicine affects an immune system switch to enable the
body to attack cancer cells that otherwise would be left
unmolested and continue to grow. Bristol-Myers is studying the
drug in kidney, lung and skin cancer patients.

Yervoy, an immuno-oncology drug for melanoma, was one of
the first such products to market and sold $706 million last
year.

“We have had a subtle but important move away from areas
where we think the need is no longer there,” Cuss said. That
includes shifting focus for future cardiovascular drugs to heart
failure, he said.

Neuroscience will be less of a near-term priority in part
because of setbacks, including the discontinuation of
avagacestat, an Alzheimer’s drug that trials showed not to be
effective. Cuss called brain diseases “clearly a difficult
area, but an area where there remains an enormous unmet need.”